Updates: Israel kills four Al Jazeera staff, including Anas al-Sharif

Read more about how Israel deliberately killed Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and four other staff, here.

Find out more about the UN Security Council meeting on Gaza and what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference, here.

And you can always find our comprehensive coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict by going here.

• The Israeli military confirmed that it deliberately killed Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif and four other staff after it hit their tent at the entrance of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
• The journalists, who had been threatened for months, are now among the more than 230 media workers who have been killed by Israeli weapons since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.
• The Israeli army also killed more Palestinians in bombings across the besieged enclave, as it allowed more limited airdrops of aid to maintain appearances of delivering food to the starving population.
• The UN Security Council held a meeting on the catastrophic situation in Gaza, where most states rejected Israel’s expanding occupation plans, but the US defended Israel and blamed Hamas.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told foreign reporters that seizing Gaza City would be the best and fastest way of ending the war, and claimed that Hamas is starving Palestinians.
• Violent Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including in a village in Hebron, as Israeli soldiers launched new raids and backed the settlers.
• Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the government has until August 24 to inform the families of captives held in Gaza about the conditions for ending the war and releasing the captives.
• Footage recorded by killed Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, now released by Israeli rights group B’Tselem, showed how Hathaleen was shot and killed by an Israeli settler.

In August of 2024, Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif was reporting on an Israeli attack that killed more than 17 displaced Palestinians sheltering at a school in central Gaza, when an air attack hit the school again.

Watch below as an example of the kind of fearless work our killed colleague undertook every day of Israel’s war on Gaza:

Israeli soldiers stormed the village of at-Tawani in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, after an attack by violent settlers met resistance from Palestinian residents.

The Israeli soldiers raided several homes and detained several people, according to the Wafa news agency, which cited local sources as saying that an activist was chased and assaulted, and had to be transferred to Yatta Governmental Hospital for treatment.

Israeli settlers also stormed the town of Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem, and started setting up mobile homes on Palestinian land.

Soldiers also intervened in Tuqu to back the settlers, and took up positions while establishing a military checkpoint.

Translation: Settlers storm the surroundings of a house in the town of Turmus Aya, northeast of Ramallah.

The Government Media Office in Gaza has confirmed that the deliberate killing of the Al Jazeera staff has brought the total number of journalists killed by Israel since the start of the war to 237.

It said in a statement that the killings constitute a fully-fledged war crime “aimed at silencing the truth and erasing the features of genocidal crimes” committed by Israel.

“It is a prelude to the [Israeli] occupation’s criminal plan to cover up the past and upcoming brutal massacres that it has carried out and intends to carry out in the Gaza Strip.”

The office said it holds Israel, the US and all countries “involved in the genocide” fully responsible for the systematic crimes against journalists and media workers in the enclave, and renewed its call for international organisations to intervene.

In October, Israel accused al-Sharif and “a number of other journalists of being terrorists without providing any credible proof”, Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), tells Al Jazeera.

“We warned back then that this felt to us like a precursor to justify assassination, and, of course, last month… we saw again, a repeated smear campaign”, she said.

“This is not solely about Anas al-Sharif, this is part of a pattern that we have seen from Israel… going back decades, in which it kills journalists”, Ginsberg said.

“It accuses journalists of being terrorists and then provides no credible proof, and it’s no accident that in October, Anas [al-Sharif] was one of the journalists raising international awareness of an increased incursion by Israel into Gaza, and increasing… offensive, and, of course”, she said.

“He warned last month about the starvation facing journalists… and we saw then the accusations repeated, and, of course, now we are seeing a new offensive, plans for a new offensive, in Gaza, the kind of thing that Anas has been reporting on for the best part of three years.”

Dr Aslam Akhtar, an emergency doctor who was volunteering at al-Shifa Hospital until last week, says he is not surprised that the journalists’ tent outside the hospital was attacked, since he has witnessed “indiscriminate killing” while he was there.

“Al-Shifa Hospital is the largest hospital in Palestine, but it has been invaded twice and burned down by the Israeli military,” Akhtar told Al Jazeera.

“There are many tents outside the hospital, as well, that are used as an ER [emergency room]. But the actual 800-bed hospital has been burned down, and it’s totally incapable of being used right now,” said Akhtar, who returned to Los Angeles from Gaza City two days ago.

He added that the patients he had seen there are now severely malnourished.

“Every patient that I saw there, whether it was a trauma patient or a medical patient, is severely malnourished.”

When he hugged his colleagues after returning to Gaza, he wanted to cry, he said, “because I’d feel how much weight they’ve lost”.

“I would feel the skin and bones of their back, because even the doctors, the nurses, even the chair of the emergency department, had lost so much weight due to the current man-made famine there.”

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman, Jordan, because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

When you read the statement issued by the Israeli army, which was well prepared before all this happened, it’s almost as if it is bragging about it.

It alleges that Anas al-Sharif was a member of the military wing of Hamas, and the army says that it has found documents in Gaza that prove their point.

It includes some links to content that anyone could have printed.

This has been going on for a few weeks, ever since Anas started reporting on the starvation in Gaza, and he had such a huge impact on the Arab world.

Immediately after, a spokesman for the Israeli army in Arabic… posted a video on social media, accusing al-Sharif of being a Hamas member and threatening him.

I was going through his feed on X. He knew his life was a serious risk, and he repeatedly wrote that he was just a journalist, and he wanted his message to be spread widely, because he thought that was a way to protect him.

The Israeli military has shared a statement acknowledging that it attacked and killed Anas al-Sharif in the Gaza City area.

It claimed that al-Sharif, a well-known correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, was acting “under the pretence of an Al Jazeera journalist” while actually working for Hamas.

The Israeli military also claimed that it took steps to minimise harming civilians before the attack on a tent housing journalists outside al-Shifa Hospital, which killed at least five journalists.

The Israeli army’s deadly attack on a journalists’ tent outside al-Shifa Hospital came hours after the Israeli prime minister told foreign media he had decided to allow some foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip.

“In fact, we have decided, and I’ve ordered, directed the military, to bring in foreign journalists, more foreign journalists,” Netanyahu said at the news conference in Jerusalem.

“There’s a problem of assuring security, but I think it can be done in a way that is responsible and careful to preserve your own safety,” he added.

The Israeli authorities have long prevented any foreign media from entering the Gaza Strip, while it has deliberately targeted and killed close to 200 local Palestinian journalists since October 2023.

The Israeli military has been systematically killing journalists, photographers and local media workers in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in an attempt to silence their reports.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been able to verify the killing of at least 186 journalists since October 7, 2023. At least 90 journalists have been imprisoned by Israel.

The Government Media Office in Gaza reports a higher number, saying that more than 230 journalists have been killed.

The Israeli military has accused many of the media workers it has killed, including Al Jazeera journalists and correspondent Anas al-Sharif, of being “terrorists” working for Hamas and other groups. It has yet to provide any documentation verified by independent international parties that would prove its claims.

Tonight’s deadly strike on Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues is not the first attack on Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza since the start of Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory.

Israeli forces have previously killed five Al Jazeera journalists: Samer Abudaqa, Ismael al-Ghoul, Ahmed al-Louh, Hossam Shabat and Hamza Dahdouh, son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, as well as many of the family members of Al Jazeera journalists.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen journalists being the main target of the Israeli military.

It’s like they’re being punished for the work they are doing, for the honest work that they are doing, for just giving the truth as it is, bringing it to the screen.

That’s something that the Israeli military political leadership does not like, because it changes a lot of the narrative. It changes how you perceive things on the ground.

So it’s not just coupled with the fear campaign and the incitement campaign against Al Jazeera and its correspondents on the ground, but it’s also directed at anyone who dares to raise their voice and to criticise all the acts on the ground, the racist acts and the genocidal acts on the ground.

Over the past 22 months, close to 200 journalists have been killed.

Every time a journalist is attacked or killed, or their families are attacked or killed, we’ve seen the same exact narrative that goes under the same mechanism of “justifying” the act because they are associated with, or they are linked to, some sort of group or the other, without offering any substantial evidence whatsoever.

Anas al-Sharif’s X account has just posted a message, written on April 6, 2025, accompanied by text saying, “This was what our dear beloved Anas requested to be published upon his martyrdom”.

“This is my will and my final message”, al-Sharif begins. “If these words of mine reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.

“By God, I have exerted every effort and strength I had to be a support and a voice for the people of my nation, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalia refugee camp.

“I lived the pain in all its details. I tasted grief and loss repeatedly. Despite that, I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping that God would witness those who remained silent, those who accepted our killing, and those who suffocated our very breaths.

“Not even the mangled bodies of our children and women moved their hearts or stopped the massacre that our people have been subjected to for over a year and a half.

“I entrust you with Palestine, the crown jewel of the Muslims, and the heartbeat of every free soul in this world.

“I entrust you with its people, and its oppressed little children, who were not granted enough time to dream and live in safety and peace.

“Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tonnes of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart; their remains scattered on walls.

“I entrust you never to let chains silence you or borders confine you, to be bridges towards the liberation of our land and people, until the sun of dignity and freedom shines upon our stolen nation.

“I entrust you to honour my family.

“I entrust you with my dearest daughter, Sham, whom the days didn’t allow me to see grow up as I had dreamed.

“I entrust you with my beloved son, Salah, whom I wished to stand by, supporting and guiding, until he became strong enough to carry the burden and continue the message after me.

“I entrust you with my beloved mother, whose blessings in prayer brought me to where I am, and whose prayers were my fortress and guiding light. May God strengthen her heart and reward her on my behalf with the best of rewards.

“I also entrust you with my lifelong partner, my beloved wife, Umm Salah, Bayan, whom the war separated me from for days and months. Yet, she held steadfast, like an unbending olive tree, patient and resilient, bearing the responsibility in my absence with all strength and faith.

“Be a support for them after God Almighty.

“If I die, I die unwavering in my principles, and I bear witness to God that I am content with His decree, believing in His meeting, and confident that what is with God is better and everlasting.

“Oh God, accept me as a martyr, forgive my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family.

“Forgive me if I fell short, and pray for me with mercy, as I have upheld my promise and neither changed nor faltered.

“Do not forget Gaza…

“And do not forget me in your righteous prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.”

Anas Jamal Al-Sharif
06.04.2025

I have reached out to the US State Department and have also asked whether Israel is allowed to target journalists for execution, and I am waiting for a response.

But I do have a sense of what they will say, because I was at the State Department at the end of March, and I asked the spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce, about the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Hossam al-Shabat and Palestine Today journalist Mohammad Mansour that had just taken place by the Israelis.

I asked for a response, and she said, “I would say that every single thing that’s happening is a result of Hamas and its choices that have dragged the region down into a level of suffering that is excruciating”.

I asked whether it was a war crime to target journalists, and she said, “I’m not going to stand here and declare what is a war crime and what isn’t, but what we do know is, a crime is the mass slaughter of any individuals; certainly the targeting of people simply because of who they are”.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that five Palestinians were killed after the Israeli military targeted a tent for journalists around al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Four were Al Jazeera journalists.

Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif’s final post on X included a video that showed Israeli strikes hitting Gaza City. Posted moments before he was killed, it described “relentless bombardment” by Israeli warplanes.

Translation: Chants during the farewell of the body of the martyr journalist Anas al-Sharif.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman, Jordan, because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military has issued a statement saying that it struck al-Sharif and accused him of being part of a Hamas cell.

They actually go as far as saying that he was a Hamas member in charge of guiding a rocket platoon, but posing as a journalist.

I don’t know if this is going to bode well with many people around the world, because Israel has been openly threatening al-Sharif for several weeks now.

It had got to the point that the UN rapporteur for the freedom of expression had actually issued a statement, on July 31, saying that all of these accusations and the online war that was going on against al-Sharif were completely unfounded, and were an attempt, really, to silence the few… reliable journalists who were left operating in the Gaza Strip.